Socio-political leader and Srimati Nandini Satpathy Memorial Trust (SNSMT) chairman Suparno Satpathy on Wednesday wrote to Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari urging him to urgently take note of ground reality flaws witnessed with the road widening project of National Highway-55 and resolve them.
Satpathy thanked Gadkari for adhering to his longstanding demand for widening of NH 55 from Manguli Chhak via Dhenkanal and Angul till Sambalpur. He, however, pointed out some flaws and requested Gadkari to support on the same.
“The widening project has been allotted on a Build Operate Transfer (BOT) model as per which the contractor will build the road and collect usage fees for a certain years and then transfer the road to the Government. But this area comprises a population with moderate means and paying for usage of the road will further burden the area financially,” pointed out Satpathy. Satpathy further pointed out that there are several industrial houses operating in the area and the need for widening of this road primarily erupted due to the increase of traffic caused by them. The Government has collected a sum from these industrial houses as external development charges (EDC) and, hence, this road expansion project can be easily financed from that fund and other additional sources of the Government and BOT is not needed,” argued Satpathy.
Satpathy also apprised the Minister that the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) and the Social Impact Assessment (SIA), which are mandatory for any project, had not been conducted error-free for the NH-55 widening project. Besides, Satpathy mentioned that while indiscriminate felling of large trees going on for the project, no plantation is being undertaken as mandated by the National Green Tribunal (NGT). In response, Gadkari said he would look into important issues raised by Satpathy before giving out a comment.